Redefining Dharma in a Time of Transition: Ānṛśaṃsya in the Mahābhārata as an Alternative End of Human Life

Abstract

Classical Indian thought has often stated that human life has four ends: dharma (social righteousness), artha (material profit), kāma (sensual pleasure) and mokṣa (spiritual liberation). The historical tradition called itihāsa claims itself as a comprehensive commentary on these four. The principal itihāsa text available to us, the Mahābhārata, boasts of containing everything that exists on these. However, the ultimate goal of human life in the Mahābhārata is predominantly dharma. But, the dharma the Mahābhārata speaks of is not necessarily what dharma came to represent in classical Brahmanical orthodoxy: a combination of the institutions of varṇa and āśrama Rather, in the narrative sections of the Mahābhārata, which possibly originated in the context of the Later Vedic Kuru kingdom of c. 1000–800 BCE, there is often a questioning of the traditional hereditary varṇadharma. Through the character of Yudhiṣṭhira, the Mahābhārata unfolds an alternative understanding of dharma, known as ānṛśaṁsya (non-cruelty). Scholars have often considered it as an alternative to the heterodox notion of ahiṁsā (non-violence). This paper shows the gradual evolution of the ideal to show that its fundamental opposition is not with the heterodox ahiṁsā, but with the orthodox varṇadharma, particularly kṣātradharma, the martial heroism expected of the kṣatriya.